Close Combat is a real time strategy game that first debuted in 1996. As the commander you control a platoon sized fighting force consisting mainly of types of infantry and and support weapons such as tanks, mortars and anti tank guns. Each of your units has a certain amount of ammunition which they may run out of in close quarter fighting, they will be killed or wounded if hit once, and may experience cowardice, extreme bravery or go fanatical during intense fighting. Morale of your men is the single most driving factor that determines who will survive, and what battles will be won or lost. You can follow your men through campaigns as the progress in rank and experience. Grand campaigns are also available where you take command of up 32 battle groups and deploy them throughout Normandy, Russia, Ardennes and many other pivotal battles. Fight over beaches, mountains, forests and many other geographical features, many historical.

There were hundreds of mods created for most versions. All of these mods are available for download. They have created the ultimate real time gaming experience by expanding Close Combat to virtually every theatre of war during World War II.The original Close Combat games are not sold in stores anymore. You can find them for sale online at places such as EBay or Amazon. Used or new copies are still being sold, even boxed originals. Matrix Games has made the game more available by remaking the originals and selling them online.

As the Allies in Close Combat Last Stand Arnhem, you will carry out the world’s largest airborne operation, Operation Market Garden, to cross the Rhine and bring a swift end to the war or, as the Germans, use a hastily organized set of defense forces to prevent the Allies from reaching their ultimate goal, Arnhem Bridge. Close Combat – Last Stand Arnhem comes with expanded force pools, reserve & static battlegroups, a troop point buying system, ferry and assault crossings, destructible bridges, static forces and much more! Also included in this rebuild are 60+ battles, operations and campaigns including a new enhanced Grand Campaign!

Last Stand Arnhem is available for purchase at Matrix Games for $39.99 USD.

Close Combat the Longest Day commences with the first Airborne drops of Operation Overlord. The Longest Day is a remake of the original, Invasion Normandy. The Grand Campaign included has been expanded to all beaches on D-Day, whereas the original only covered American beaches. New maps, battles, units and sounds have also been created for this version. Some maps from the Invasion Normandy mods Gold Juno Sword and Bloody Omaha were added. The main new features include night fighting, which reduces visibility and adds the option to deploy mortar illumination. Graphical enhancements to the battle debrief screens now show cohesion and percentage of victory locations held by each side, this is also shown in the campaign debrief screen. The original version of Invasion Normandy has been included with the Longest Day.

The Longest day is available for purchase at Matrix Games for $39.99 USD.

Close Combat Wacht Am Rhein begins the morning of Germany's last great offensive. Wacht Am Rhein is a remake of the original version, Battle of the Bulge. Many of the great features of the original have been included here. Supply drops, misguided American battlegroups and the difficult terrain of the Ardennes. The Germans are very heavy with armoured groups which are equipped with Panthers, other heavy battle groups are equipped mainly with fighting vehicles. Specific german battle groups also have the option to reinforce, a feature not seen in the original or Invasion Normandy. The Grand Campaign has been expanded to 64 maps, and more battle groups have been added to each side.

Wacht Am Rhein is available for purchase at Matrix Games for $39.99 USD.

Close Combat Cross of Iron recreates the battle for Russia which began in 1942. Cross of Iron is the remake of The Russian Front. The main improvements to this version were to make it more compatible with new operating systems, smaller improvements were also made to the artificial intelligence. CoI offer a linear type campaign system, as you win or lose battles the computer will decide where to send you for your next battle. You can follow your men from 1942 to 1945 while improving their equipment along the way. The greatest improvement was in inclusion of MMCC3 which stands for Massive Multiplayer online Close Combat 3. With MMCC3 you can connect Cross of Iron to a variety of game servers and battle online against the AI or a human opponent for control of the Russian Front. these online campaigns last 24/7, you may take part in the action any time you wish.

Cross of Iron is available for purchase at Matrix Games for $39.99 USD.

Close Combat Modern Tactics is the first of the Close Combat series to introduce 5 vs 5 head to head action. You can play as either US Forces of the fictional Opposing Force (OpFor). There is no campaign, only single battle engagement. These engagement can be on training grounds modeled from actual U.S. bases or fictional Middle East areas. Weapons of OpFor are typically Soviet and Chinese such as AK47 assault rifles and RPGs. you also have all sorts of jeeps and trucks they ride in. American have their choice of most modern weapons which range from the M1A1 Abrams, Squad Automatic Weapons and grenade launchers. Other improvements include the ability for your troops to dig a trench while in combat, load and unload onto troop carrying vehicles and have multiple support missions during a battle. Weapons in Modern Tactics are extremely powerful and you have to make a large shift in your tactics if you are used to playing the versions set in World War 2.

Modern Tactics is available for purchase at Matrix Games for $29.99 USD.

Close Combat 5 Invasion Normandy drops you onto the beaches and hedgerows of Normandy. Your Airborne troops have landed behind the beaches while your main attacking force just butted heads with the German bunkers towering over them on the beaches. One of the main shifts from Battle of the Bulge to Invasion Normandy is the reliance on infantry once again and the ability to customize the platoon you enter battle with. Many of your battle groups do not contain massive numbers of tanks. Fighting and defending the cities and hedgerows with infantry through the hedgerows bring an immense satisfaction to any war gamer enthusiast.

You can get lucky and still find this version in stores, its unlikely in most cases though as it was released in 2000. You can find used copies and duplicates at Ebay or Amazon.com

Close Combat 4 Battle of the Bulge recreates the German Offensive in the Ardennes named Wacht Am Rhein. The campaign starts as the heavy German battle groups pour over into American sectors overrunning many of them. Fighting as the Americans in the beginning days you have little to stop thier advance. A shortage of bazooka teams, 57mm and heavier anti tank guns will plaque you at the onset. As the Germans you must be meticulous in your battles, your men and machines must survive to the end of the 25 day campaign. Supply drops will be made available for surrounded American battle groups and the German may decieve American battle groups into moving places they dont wish to go.

Close Combat 4 Battle of the Bulge was released in 1999 and is not available at retail stores anymore. You can find used copies and duplicates at Ebay or Amazon.com.

Close Combat 3 The Russian Front takes you to the unforgiving Eastern Front. beginning in the early 1940's you command a small group of German soldiers during the initial attack into Russia. As you progress in rank by winning battles you can enjoy choosing more equipment and men to fight with with. As time progresses through your campaigns, equipment will be upgraded and new equipment will become available. You can rest or refit your units as they get fatigued or take losses in battles. Alternatively you can drive off the Germam attackers with heavy Joseph Stalin tanks.

Close Combat 3 The Russian Front was released in 1998 and is not available at retail stores anymore. You can find used copies and duplicates at Ebay or Amazon.com.

Close Combat 2 A Bridge Too Far focuses on the Airborne drops into Holland during Operation Market Garden. You can play as the Americans, British, Polish or Germans. The battles are heavily dependant on your skills an as infantry platoon commander, there are not near as many vehicles in A Bridge Too Far as there are in later versions. You can play battles, operations and campaigns. Some of the battles include those that took place at Oosterbeek and Arnhem. The fight takes place on very small maps which leads to very intense close quarter fighting, watch your ammo count! The artificial intelligence of A Bridge Too Far is arguably the best in the series to date.

Close Combat 2 A Bridge Too Far was released in 1997 and is not available at retail stores anymore. You can find used copies and duplicates at Ebay or Amazon.com.

The game that spawned a new era of realistic tactical real time strategy. The very first version of Close Combat, released in 1996 by Atomic Games. The original versions puts you back into Normandy, right into the hedgerows and small towns. Close Combat 1 introduced the psychcological factors of your soldier for you to manage. You troops could gain experience, leadership or turn into cowards. If your soliders were wounded all thier characteristics would suffer.

On March 23 Platoon_Michael and I decided to have a classic Battle of the Bulge grand campaign. 15 minute games with morale on, Michael playing as Germans. Neither of us had played CC4 in awhile, let alone made it any significant progress playing out the grand campaign in the last few years. Starting the game, the force strength bar was in his favor but I like an underdog fight and I knew most battles I would be fighting to survive. In fact, the very first battle I was disbanded by a German group with Panthers at Simmerath.

During the opening days of the campaign as Allies my hands were tied. I was fighting with many under strength battle groups without armour and very little anti-tank weapons. I was facing German groups that could field five Panther tanks turn after turn. My Southern flank was crushed. The German spy network was working overtime to completely screw my chances at countering his drive in the South. Turn after turn all my units were redirected which also resulting in other units getting stuck behind the front line. The spy network was so effective that Bastogne fell without a fight, I couldn't get any of my units in there for a defence, a massive victory for Michael. On December 19th, the spy network was no longer operating and I now I can attempt to clean up the mess.

One aspect of CC4 that was the bane of its existence was the locked forcepools. So many of us shunned it back in 1999 due to that, it was a huge change from The Russian Front. Now however, locked forcepools are something I can appreciate. Combine this aspect with a 15 minute timer and morale turned on you can easily get up to five games completed in one hour! The extremely small maps also help keep up the fast paced nature of CC4. There are very little options for defence. The maps are only a couple hundred meters wide, you are literally dropped into a cage and must fight for your survival. The fights a very lethal and the stakes are multiplied by having morale on.

Relearning the units combat qualities was also costly. The German Infantry Gun carries a ton ammo, is mobile and has a very high rate of fire. I found this out at Wardin on December 18th. Watch this video at the 3:45 mark. I was not prepared to counter that unit and it steamrolled my infantry. During the next battle on December 19th, all my infantry teams focused on it with small arms fire and the gun went down very slowly, only after the outcome of the battle was decided. German flamethrower teams are another unit that is hard to face. These teams also have a high rate of fire but less killing per shot that we are used to in CC5. You cannot engage these units in house to house combat. They are not easily suppressed either.

American antitank weapons like the 57mm antitank gun and bazooka are effect vs all armour and vehicles. However, head on vs Panthers both Allied units will lose. Side and rear shots are required for more than damaging hits. If you are cut off from supply, the 57mm guns will expend all ammo very quickly.The size of the maps limit your ability to get beside or behind a Panther. Sherman 76mms and M10s will also have a tough time head on vs the Panther. Multiple tanks vs one Panther is effective in the sense that they will knock out the combat effectiveness of the Panther, but not destroy the tank. Over and over again I see Michael pulling a Panther back due to losing its main gun or too many crew members.

I am recording each battle of the GC, this will be the first and only complete grand campaign uploaded to Youtube to date. We are 62 battles in with about nine hours of total play time. We are currently on December 20th Evening about to make strategic moves. We have both had our days of defeats and days of victory. One thing the Allies do not have are any heros with huge kill counts. Attrition is extremely high and most of my men do not survive more than two or three battles.

Gateway to Caen was released June 5th at Matrix Games. You can purchase the digital download at Matrix Games or Steam for about $40. There is a one week promotional discount that happening to. The physical copies will not be shipped until 19 June.

The Steam forums are very active with players posting opinions, reviews, screenshots and videos. You also visit the Matrix GWTC forum and our own GTC forum here at CCS. Matrix and Slitherine staff are responding regularly at the Steam forums.

Product description from Matrix... Gateway to Caen focuses on the largest, concentrated British offensive since the Normandy landings in an attempt to penetrate the German lines west of Caen and cross the Odon River to get the stalled advance moving again. Players can experience the desperate situation of the outnumbered, but well-armed Panzergrenadiers, or the daunting offensive mission of the fully-supported British infantry advancing across the treacherous Odon Valley. At your command are Churchill, Cromwell, Firefly, Sherman, Stuart tanks and more. Panther, Tiger, Stug, and Mk.IV tanks will arrive to support German Panzergrenadiers as they try to hold the line against a concerted British attack.

Two screenshots of a the alpha version of The Bloody First have been let out. The images and a brief review appear over at Pocket Tactics. Slitherine development director Iain McNeil gives some insight on the problems with the original engine and why we are moving to 3D. The screenshots show two camera angles which will be the only two angles of view. The ability to zoom will also be there. We have started a discussion in the forums here.

Gateway to Caen has entered its beta phase. Many testers come right out of the community here and from Matrix Games. Release date is June 6th and it will be available via Steam.

A new soundmod for WaR has been released by vobbnobb. He has replaced most of the small arms sounds with softer more realistic samples. Download WAR_RealSounds_v1.0_installer.zip.

Digs has modified a soundmod for Cross of Iron. This is mainly an update to RD_Deathdealer's soundmods released in 2009. The difference with Digs' mod is that he changed the deploy music, which in turn enabled him to combined both of RD_Deathdealer's soundmod plugins into one file. You get all same weapon sounds RD_Deathdealer added minus the deploy music and multiple plugins. Download COI_RealismSoundMod_Modified_by_Digs.zip here.

All of Mafi's tools have been updated to the latest versions in the downloads section. Eleven in total which are 5CC 1.22, BED9 1.09, CC2OvEdit.zip 1.02, CC2Spriter.zip 2.95, CCBmaker.zip 1.03, CCVehShEdit.zip 1.01, MyMookX_v3.zip 3.0 and RtBTool.zip 2.39. All these modding tools are available in the Toolbox section in the downloads area. For the absolute latest versions and updates from Mafi visit his CC2 Revival Site.

TeamSpeak is hosted again on CCS. Download the TeamSpeak3 Client and connect to 204.12.235.186, leave port number blank.

Note: Close Combat Player's news is a short summary of major events, new and updated mods and anything noteworthy. Contact MOOXE is you'd like anything added.

Matrix Games has published the product info page for Gateway to Caen. There's a few new features and a carry over and many familiar ones brought in after Invasion Normandy. Two of the biggest new features are camouflaging and rolling barrages. In the GWTC Screenshot Gallery you can see a tank being given the camouflage command. There's no clear information now on what exactly that does, or how long a tank or anti tank gun takes to do it. You can also see a rolling barrage being set up in the screenshots. The arty icon has "prep" printed across it and the mini map has a large red section possibly where the barrage will hit. The games interface and multiplayer functions will be the same as Panthers in the Fog. Mount and dismount troops and guns are present as well, and hopefully fixed. There is no release date yet, the game is still in development.

Drizzt has completed porting the Kharkov mod from Invasion Normandy to The Longest Day. Kharkov is a complete overhaul to TLD and brings you to the Eastern front during the Russian spring offensive in 1942. You can play as the Russians or Germans using many of the time periods armour and infantry teams. Drizzt has included a very detailed readme doc listing many of the changes and some issues. There are also documents explaining the medals and the battle and operations included, as well as a graphical depiction of the front lines in 1942, to see these browse the /Close Combat The Longest Day/Kharkov/Extras/ folder. The mod is an auto installer, simply run the EXE file and an icon will be placed on your desktop. Download TLD_Kharkov_v2.2_installer.zip.

The Battle for Caen mod now has an auto installer. If you are not familiar with this mod, its basically Gold Juno Sword modded onto The Longest Day. The auto installer simply places an icon on your desktop, no modifications are made to your original install as plugin would do, you can play TLD normally with BfC installed. Battle for Caen is as close to playing Close Combat 5 you will get with all the bug fixes included. You can read about Battle for Caen in this After Action Report. Download TLD_BattleforCaen_v0.93_installer.zip.

There is a public Meuse 1940 Grand Campaign ongoing. Anyone can join. We are currently on day and the main line of French defence has been broken. We are fighting as German vs the AI. Theres four of us playing currently but everyone is welcome to join. Its all in fun as we know we can beat the AI. Our goals are to eliminate French armour and command teams and make it West as soon as possible. If you want to fight with us please read the joining instructions.

Are you interested in having a four player (or more) game of Close Combat Modern Tactics? If you have CCM or CCMT and are interested please sign up here in the forums. We'd like to get as many playing as possible and record the game for Youtube.

Matrix Games have released patch v3.61 for Cross of Iron. This patch adds another game menu with a note beside the MMCC3 button stating for Windows XP only. The MMCC3 files will not be removed from your installation, the old command center game menu will stay as well. You can still playing MMCC3 single player if you can get it to run. The MMCC3 servers were shut down long ago as Microsoft Java Virtual Machine, which MMCC3 is based on, is no longer supported by Microsoft and not compatible with any of its modern operating systems. The patch also fixes a bug where your anti tanks guns will constantly traverse and not engage targets. Download COI_Patch_v3.61.zip.

Caruso has released a small vetmod for Invasion Normandy's Gold Juno Sword mod. This GJS vetmod is meant to be played as Germans vs Allied AI. The goal was to combine some of the Salhexe's improvements to the EXE, weapons, SAI, and other values, into something even more challenging for the human player. The mod in a plugin, unzip the PLN file to your /Config Manager/Plugins folder, ensure GJS4.4 is installed prior. Download CC5_GJS4.4_VetmodPlus1.0_plugin.zip.

Gameranger is still trucking along. It remains the primary meeting point for all versions of Close Combat except Panthers in the Fog. Games are played daily there, the most common versions played are Invasion Normandy, Cross of Iron and the Longest Day.

TheImperatorKnight has setup his own Youtube channel with many Close Combat videos. TIK has been reporting on current Close Combat news and showcasing different versions for months now. He has also started a new website called Close Combat Fanatics. You can see videos, news and he's currently hosting a Panthers in the Fog tournament which is already underway. I am sure we can expect TIK to publish the first videos of Gateway to Caen when its released!

The CSO site has been recently resurrected. The forums are back online and Sulla is still busy recreating the downloads and news section.

A big thanks goes out to our members 0202243, Miker1 and one anonymous person for donations in February.

Execution- Sign out GC save file by posting "Campaign Blocked". Download the forum attachment and save it to your /Matrix Games/Close Combat The Longest Day/Meuse/Games/Save. Play as many games vs the AI as you can. Upon completion upload the GC file back to this thread with a screenshot of results. Save the game with the filename, "TLD_OLB_###.gc" It is very important to save the game with a .gc at the end, this will enable you to upload the file without zipping it.

Cathartes has posted a short 52 second video of Matrix & Slitherine's upcoming title Close Combat Gateway to Caen. The video is showing a few characteristics worthy of talking about. Explosion effects have been modified. Good insight is given into the rifle and machine gun sounds and you will recognize some old voices from GJS. Also, either they have changed the narrow view Panthers in the Fog gives you or Cathartes has a 30" monitor.

This is a look at the Battle for Caen mod for The Longest Day. I will be playing a grand campaign. This is not a review, more like a look at the mod and engine it’s running on. Battle for Caen is an adaptation of the Invasion Normandy mod, Gold Juno Sword. Dima took this mod and created Total Realism Submod (TRSM) for Invasion Normandy. Then, with Nikins help it was ported to The Longest Day and renamed Battle for Caen. Caen on the strategic map has always been a defensive anchor for the Germans so the name is still fitting. The map is excellent for defence due to the four bridges and all the cover the city provides. Nikin and Dima have released version 0.93, and are working on another update.

Battle rebuilds and end timer crashes are mostly a thing of the past now, I have not come across a single crash! Invasion Normandy also forced us to not get ahead of our opponent in the strategic phase or you would suffer a game freeze. So no longer do we have to follow the "execute, next next" routine. Taking all these fixes into account, the first feeling Battle for Caen gave me was relief. The next feeling was familiarity. Seeing the old and trusted Gold Juno Sword strategic map in TLD was great. Now I feel like I am playing Invasion Normandy with all the fixes that made online play a bit difficult.

This is a small AAR of an overview I am doing on Battle for Caen for the Wargamer.com. I decided to look at The Longest Day and the BfC mod because its the closest we will get to seeing CC5 in a rerelease for the time being. Its what I am interested in mostly. Its great seeing the Gold Juno Sword strategic map in TLD, and so is having many of the bugs that are present in CC5 multiplayer fixed. This battle takes place on the afternoon turn of June 9th in Villers Bocage against the AI. My 7/3 armoured unit has raced across the entire strategic map to confront the 130 Lehr.

My wolverine started the head on fight at about six minutes left. My Sherman tank used 40 second to move into position for rear shots. The Centaur stayed put nailing infantry who were foolishly trying to cross the road. Bodies are turned off here so I can see who's alive in the Church. I would of moved him up but he may of blocked the Wolverines LOS. Meanwhile a PIAT team was coming up from the south. When the PIAT crew finally had a shot from 50m, they said the armour was too thick but he still took up aim. The Sherman got the killing blow and the PIAT fired about six seconds afterwards. The Sherman crew captured a few VLs prior to the Tiger kill, and captured one afterwards, which is why they all have three acts of bravery. My losses are very heavy for a fight vs the AI. I'll explain that later but its definitely not due the AI out smarting me! I only wish the German had more Tigers. Its a lot of fun trying to beat them.

In 2003 Matrix Games along with Eric Young released Eric Young's Squad
Assault: Westfront. This was quite literally Close Combat in 3D. Eric
Young was one of the original developers with Atomic. Squad Assault was
the second and more successful attempt at putting Close Combat into 3D.
GI Combat was the first and did not work very well, Eric Young also
worked on that one. It recieved bad reviews and the forums turned into
flames and have since dissapeared. From the images I attached you can
plainly see the influence of Close Combat into Squad Assault. When I
say its literally Close Combat in 3D, thats not an exaggeration, all
the same options are there along with copied maps. There are some new
options which I will touch briefly on, there are also things taken out
like right clicking for map properties. The 3D camera view at first is
hard to get used to, however after a couple minutes its simple. Once
you find a good camera angle its likely you will stick with it,
changing only to check map elevations and LOS. During my St. Mere
Eglise battle I did notice troops popping smoke automatically to block
incoming LOS, nice touch.

Click Read More for screenshots, the demo and more details.

Select Page of 17 pages.

In August of 2004, Zappi, Homba, Bambam887, RedScorpion and MOOXE all pitched
in to create this Close Combat site. I would to thank all the people who have visited
and found this site to thier liking. I hope you had time to check out some
of the great Close Combat mods and our forums. I'd also like to thank
all the members of our volunteer staff that have helped over
the years, and all our users that contributed to this site!